Why Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

A pair of Kurdish men agreed to operate secretly to uncover a operation behind illegal commercial establishments because the wrongdoers are damaging the image of Kurdish people in the Britain, they explain.

The two, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both lived legally in the United Kingdom for many years.

Investigators discovered that a Kurdish criminal operation was managing small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and sought to learn more about how it worked and who was involved.

Prepared with hidden cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no right to be employed, seeking to acquire and operate a small shop from which to trade contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to uncover how simple it is for an individual in these conditions to start and run a enterprise on the main street in public view. Those involved, we found, compensate Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, assisting to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly document one of those at the centre of the organization, who asserted that he could erase official sanctions of up to £60,000 encountered those using illegal laborers.

"Personally sought to participate in revealing these unlawful practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not speak for our community," explains Saman, a ex- asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the UK illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his safety was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized migration are significant in the United Kingdom and state they have both been concerned that the probe could inflame hostilities.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish community" and he considers compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, Ali explains he was anxious the reporting could be used by the radical right.

He states this notably struck him when he realized that radical right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity protest was occurring in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working covertly. Placards and banners could be spotted at the protest, showing "we demand our country back".

The reporters have both been monitoring social media response to the investigation from inside the Kurdish population and say it has sparked strong outrage for some. One Facebook post they spotted stated: "In what way can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

A different demanded their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also seen accusations that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter says. "Our goal is to reveal those who have damaged its image. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly concerned about the behavior of such people."

Most of those seeking refugee status say they are fleeing politically motivated discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a charity that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for many years. He states he had to live on less than twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now receive about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which includes meals, according to official guidance.

"Practically saying, this isn't sufficient to maintain a acceptable existence," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely prohibited from working, he thinks a significant number are vulnerable to being manipulated and are essentially "compelled to work in the illegal sector for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A representative for the government department stated: "We do not apologize for denying refugee applicants the right to be employed - doing so would create an motivation for people to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can require multiple years to be processed with nearly a third taking over 12 months, according to government figures from the late March this year.

The reporter states working without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been very straightforward to achieve, but he informed the team he would not have participated in that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he encountered laboring in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "confused", especially those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals spent all of their funds to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've forfeited all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] declare you're prohibited to be employed - but also [you]